About Us

Are you here because you want to know more about us? Good!

Let’s Talk About Us

It’s only natural curiosity that you’d want to know a little more about who’s cooking.

Well, let’s get started. We are a mother/daughter duo, however we have plenty of others who post from time to time, or work hard in the background.

The short version

Mom – I’m Nicole. I am a Recipe Developer. Mother of 2. Nana of 1. Social Media Junkie. Crafter. DIY-er. Planner Addict. Gamer and Streamer. Frugal Gal. A Southern Girl at heart, living in the Midwest, in the middle of suburbia but longing for a simple country life.

Daughter – I’m Brielle. I am a Blogger. Home Cook. Creative Heart. Mother of 1 Super Sweet, Super Cute boy. I’m a DIY-er, gamer and streamer, pickle addict. I love sushi and spicy food. I love cooking and baking and have been doing it with my mom since I was two.

Together we are the mother/daughter duo that make up Daily Dish Recipes. We live in the St. Louis area in two crazy households. They are crazy, but it’s our crazy and we love it.

More About Nicole:

St. Louis Food Writing

I became a food writer in 2003, shortly after I moved back to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. I was already working as a freelance writer focusing on topics such as frugal living, parenting and local St. Louis life.

Naturally food plays an important role in all three of those topics, so eventually I found myself writing about food, and then St. Louis/Midwestern Cuisine. Anyone for a Gooey Butter Cake, Pork Steaks or Toasted Ravioli?

Food Blogging

In 2004 I started a Frugal Living/Food blog to share my general love of food, recipes and family cooking, as well as to share tips on saving money on food, groceries, food preparation and kitchen products. Mostly because everyone in the world was looking for these same ideas. Plus, cooking from scratch is always cheaper and has many added benefits.

A year later, in 2005, Daily Dish Recipes was born and began on a free site (remnants of that site still exist) to keep my recipes and the frugal living separate as I expanded to other areas of Frugal Living.  In 2009, I made the switch to my own domain and purchased www.dailydishrecipes.com and have been building this site ever since.

Food Style

My style of cooking is simple, down home, feel good family food. I consider myself the Queen of Comfort Food. My recipes have not only a bit of Midwestern flair, but also a bit of a southern flair. My recipes come from a million different sources, sometimes its a family recipe, sometimes it’s something I got from a friend, sometimes I find a good pinterest recipe, I might scour my hundreds of cookbooks for something new and other times I don’t use any recipe at all, I just throw stuff together and call it a day. Recipes tend to take on a life of their own in my kitchen despite how they were originally written. My goal is to provide you with easy, made from scratch recipes so you can cook at home.

In 2006 I made the transition from cooking for 3 to cooking for 7. That was a pretty huge change. My food styles changed a little in that transition as I needed to explore recipes that 5 children who had different tastes would eat. One child is especially picky and has been challenging since the start. In fact, in 2006, she had never before eaten a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich or a Cheeseburger. She was 11 years old. Can you imagine? That changed quickly.

I set out to make family meals that everyone loved and would keep coming back for more. Admittedly many of my recipes are not traditionally “healthy”. I cook with butter and shortening, we eat bacon often, and we have few Meatless Monday’s, know what I mean? But it’s always made from scratch, with mostly all natural ingredients and I try to use local when I can. It’s all about moderation anyway.

Grow Your Own Healthy Food

However, with that said, we have an herb garden as well as growing lots of veggies and some fruit.

We grow Garlic, Onion, Chives, Parsley, Cilantro, Sweet Basil, Lemon Thyme, Lavender, Oregano, Zucchini, Several Varieties of Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Several Varieties of Squash, Two varieties of Eggplant, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Corn, Every color of peppers out there (green, orange, yellow, red, purple), jalapenos, banana peppers, Strawberries, Blueberries, Grapes.

There are plenty of dishes on my blog that utilize these vegetables and fruits, and we love them. Yes, even the picky eater who is now 21 and isn’t quite as picky anymore. There are plenty of healthy recipes found on this blog and I encourage you to modify any recipe that you can make healthier for your family – we do it too.

One of the key elements of my life is that all of my recipes have to be approved by hungry teenagers and a toddler or two, which is what continues to guide my recipe creation. Family friendly is the key word in my kitchen. My hope is that someday, the time the family has spent with me in the kitchen will be a tradition they want to carry on with their own families and children.

While our space to grow all of these things has dwindled from a move, I do my best to keep up and plant in containers as much as possible to make it easier to move. I hope someday I have another big back yard where I can plant the way I love to plant.

Where the Magic Happens

My favorite place to be – my kitchen.

More About Brielle:

The Short & Sweet.

I am a mom, I was a teen mom. I had my beautiful baby boy when I was just three weeks shy of 18. (How is he already 7 years old?!?!) I am proud of being a young mom. It wasn’t on purpose but it was never an accident or a mistake. I have the love and support of my entire family who stood behind me and Carsyn’s dad as we made the transition into parenthood. I couldn’t be more grateful for Carsyn or his place in my life. I am lucky to have found a great guy along the way, and we’ve been together four years. We live together in a cute little house in the country. (My mom is sort of jealous because of the area we live in). Devon is amazing and he’s fantastic with Carsyn. I am blessed.

Home Cook.

I have been cooking and baking beside my mother since I was two years old and she put me in my first apron that was longer than I was. I have a wide variety of foods that I love. Brussels sprouts, lima beans and sushi to name just a few, but the list is long. I adore almost anything spicy and will put jalapenos on almost anything. Avocado too. Unlike most people and even when I was younger, I’d choose a fruit or vegetable over a slice of pizza any day of the week. In fact, secret that makes me unpopular with many… I don’t really like pizza. But if you want to get a pizza, I won’t deny you that pleasure, I can eat wings, subs or a salad.

I find baking to be a lot of fun. I am naturally creative, so I’m pretty good at decorating my baked goods, which I find so therapeutic and fun.

Carsyn is now seven years old, has a voracious appetite and loves many of my favorite foods. He especially loves Brussels sprouts and tomatoes. It’s weird, I know. But they are his favorite. He also loves Sushi which in my world is a win-win.

While most of my food and recipe development is self taught, like my mom I have taken several culinary classes too. I love to continue to grow and learn in the kitchen and have made some of my own recipes to share as well. Look for them soon!

Here is the link to contact us.